The BMW M8 Is Back From The Dead To Steal Our Hearts

It would have been a stretch of the imagination to think BMW would spend so much time, money, and effort on the revival of the 8 Series, a stepping stone on the path to solidifying itself at the very top of the luxury class, and not send a few of those off to the M Division for fine tuning. As you probably expected, that’s exactly what’s happened. Drunk off the unveiling of the 8 Series Concept that took place this past week, BMW has confirmed that an M8 will be making production.

BMW even gave us a teaser image to stoke the fires in our imagination. Problem is, the whole car is covered in camouflage and fake body panels to hide its more interesting bits. The main silhouette is intact, though there’s no way of knowing whether those signature sharp kidney grilles or long taillights from the concept will make it to the road going version. That’s kind of the point given that the BMW has only revealed the concept and is keeping the production car under wraps for a later date. Also hidden are the components of the signature M Performance body kit it will undoubtedly receive. At least BMW wasn’t too cruel because it’s cued us in on a few of the more significant modifications.

Among these are more horsepower, upgraded brakes, larger intakes, a raunchy exhaust note and, in classic M fashion, four tailpipes to help the engine sing its song. Speaking of the engine, BMW hasn’t uttered a peep about what that might be. The wiser among us would probably place their bets on it being the 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 that makes 600 horsepower in the M5. No word on whether it’ll be boosted to make extra horsepower, but BMW did say it will have “significantly boosted power.” Whatever that means. Signs BMW is serious about making this a performance car is the fact that development of a GTE-spec BMW M8 is underway to lead BMW Motorsports' return to LeMans.

Its racing debut will take place in the Daytona 24 Hours in January 2018. All of this BMW M excitement has us impatient and riled up for the production car debut, but there may be virtue in staying patient because BMW is building the M8 alongside the 8 Series coupe. No matter how you cut it, there will be plenty motorsports DNA in both the 8 Series and M8. As for when we'll first see the hotrod 8 Series itself? Look for this camouflaged representative to be shown to the world in a driving presentation as part of the support program for the Nurburgring 24-hour race.